Identifying and Analyzing User Needs: A Complete Handbook and Ready-to-Use Assessment Workbook with Disk.

The book could be two separate publications: a “practical manual” or a historical, scholarly perspective on the topic. As a result, the book leaves something to be desired. Lynn Westbrook, the author, has taught workshops and classes on needs assessment and is well qualified to write either the practical manual or the scholarly overview. But by writing one book, each point of view is given short shrift. The author tries to cover all the relevant topics, but very few of them are given enough depth. Ron Powell, in his preface, says this book is written from “somewhat of a theoretical foundation” (p. xiii), that appears to be more criticism than praise. He also notes that he finds “other evidence of her research perspective” in the book, but again this does not speak to the strength of the scholarly writing. However, the audience for this book consists of those who want a short overview of conducting needs assessment and could use some guidance in the process. Yet, while this guidance can be found in the book, the format makes it difficult to use. Had this book simply focused on being a handbook and workbook, it could have been an important addition to systematic data collection in librarianship.

Instead, this book tries to walk a line between scholarship and practical manual and suffers as a result. Limiting most of the literature to librarianship, and mainly dated studies, manuals, or research textbooks at that, means that the true “science” behind needs assessment is not fully realized. However, interrupting the manual with topical literature reviews, citations, and uneven handling of methods creates a too-shallow treatment of important components. Sampling, primarily probability focused, is covered in sixteen pages. This consideration is important in designing a community information needs assessment (CINA), and, while this topic is proportionately larger than many others, there is no need to devote space to the differences of simple random, stratified random, and cluster sampling. This difference is important, but a few paragraphs for each type of sampling makes it seem a simpler process than it really is. By simplifying or devoting very little space to important concepts, the book demotes the importance of the process. If probability sampling is a concern in a library's CINA, then someone familiar with the process (a researcher, statistician, etc.) should be consulted. What do the eight lines devoted to non-parametric statistics (pp. 173–4) add to anyone's introduction to the topic? Many other resources can help guide librarians to specific data collection methods and analyses, ranging from research methods books for librarians (such as Powell [1], referenced extensively in this book) as well as more comprehensive needs assessment texts. Soriano [2] for example is a practical guide with worksheets appended to the end; and Witkin and Altschuld [3], while subtitled a “Practical Guide,” goes much more deeply into the theory and science behind conducting needs assessments.

Data coding is equated with cataloging, a simplistic but well-intended explanation of content analysis (p. 183), but drawing conclusions from this type of data is not given enough attention. It is surprising that Westbrook does not pay more attention to qualitative analysis in this book as she has written a chapter in Powell's most recent research text [4]. Additional questions arise in her discussion of data collection methods; for example, many would argue against quantifying preferences and attitudes (p. 57).

This book is 307 pages with 19 pages of prefatory material. One hundred of the 307 pages are devoted to appendixes (case studies and statistical reports generated by online public access catalogs), annotated suggested readings, cited works, a glossary, and an author/subject integrated index that is too sparse to be useful. A floppy disk accompanies the printed text, duplicating much of the book and its bibliography in a lengthy Microsoft Word document (151 pages on the reviewer's computer). This document contains several worksheets that could prove useful in the planning process, but the inclusion of text from the book and citations make it less of a workbook and more of an extension (with duplication) of the book. While these figures and worksheets are listed separately in the prefatory material, it is still hard to go directly to them on the disk. Getting directly to these useful worksheets is difficult, because pagination will be system dependent. While it is possible to use Word's Find function, it seems unreasonable to ask users to do the work. Using hyperlinks in the electronic document would make this manual more useful.

In its favor, the book is strong in its delineation of the process and planning, and it is unfortunate that it could not include a separate workbook devoted to the planning process. In addition, the section on using inhouse data (pp. 125–31) is excellent and a model of what the book could contribute. Specific data are gathered in librarianship that are unique to its practice—for example, that which connects person-to-document (p. 102)—and the more in-depth treatment given to this topic is both warranted and well handled. “Sharing the Results,” chapter 9, is short but informative, beginning with good advice: “tak[e] care not to surprise any interested parties” (p. 189).

An equally important topic is chapter 7 (pp. 153–66), “Launching a Study.” However, some of the statements are questionable (p. 107): For example, “pretesting usually takes a few days since it can be difficult to locate suitable members of the population” (p. 154). While it is true that it is difficult to find suitable members, pretesting is also apt to take more than a few days, because it should be an iterative process, resulting in more refined instruments and data-collection methods. In the same chapter: “training with few exceptions, takes no more than two hours and often as little as a half-hour” (p. 157). While this can be true, it is more likely not to be if a library is using untrained staff members. Again, it makes the process seem simpler and less critical than it actually is. Finally, while Westbrook discusses the need to pretest questionnaires, it is considered good practice to pretest before any systematic data collection.

This book does not discuss human subject reviews by internal review boards that must be addressed when using human subjects in any study, including a CINA. Instead, ethics discussions appear throughout the book, including the pronouncement that some special situations require special consent forms (p. 86). Another discussion that is missing in this book stems from the focus on the traditional library setting without enough attention to the digital library and electronic users.

The bibliography is good but somewhat dated with very little from outside the library perspective. Because community needs assessments are conducted in many disciplines (e.g., marketing, public health nursing) and by people who want to go deeper into the process, some more of that literature could be cited as resource material. New, interdisciplinary literature (e.g., Babbie, Sieber, Krathwohl) exists; some other references could be updated (e.g., Leedy is up to a 6th edition). Most of the library studies are classics from the 1980s, but it makes the whole bibliography appear weary, even though the author calls Reed's 1992 work “dated” (p. 193). Providing the citations at the end of each chapter helps topically, but a complete bibliography at the end and the appearance of many citations in more than one chapter adds unnecessary bulk to the book. Perhaps one alphabetical and one topical bibliography at the end would be more helpful and less intrusive.

The tenor of this book also vacillates. There is a preponderance of indecisive language such as the phrase “when possible” or “wherever users have a choice, they often express a preference” (p. 57). More disconcerting is a surprising, slightly disparaging tone toward librarians. While undoubtedly well intentioned, statements such as: “as always, good librarians can envision more than is realistically possible to do so a viable focus becomes a touchstone” (p. 34) are disconcerting.

Would this book be a valuable addition to a library planning a needs assessment? That depends upon whether the library is willing to go beyond the literature of librarianship, in which case the examples listed in the reference section may serve the practical purpose better. Yet, the references cited in this book and the worksheets contained on the diskette bear review and may be worth the price of purchase if other resources are used to supplement this “handbook and ready-to-use assessment workbook.”